HNP – Vice Chairman of the Ha Noi People’s Committee Ngo Van Quy, also Head of the Steering Committee on Disease Prevention and Control on July 25 presided over a conference on the prevention and control of dengue fever in Ha Noi.

According to the report of the Municipal Department of Health, Viet Nam has recorded 58,246 dengue fever cases since the beginning of 2017, including 17 deaths and the capital city of Ha Noi has been struck hard in recent weeks by the mosquito borne viral disease.

Statistics released by the Ha Noi Department of Health showed that since the beginning of the year, the capital has recorded 6,699 cases of dengue fever, including one death in Trung Liet Ward, Dong Da District. Most patients had recovered, and about 700 are still being treated in hospitals.

The Municipal Department of Health has deployed numerous drastic measures to actively control and prevent dengue fever. By July 21, 2017, the department has carried out over 531 campaigns on environmental sanitation and killing mosquito larvae in dengue hotbeds.

The capital city has put 789 of the 984 reported dengue hotbeds under control, with no new dengue cases within 14 days at those places.

In order to prevent a further rise in dengue fever cases, Vice Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Ngo Van Quy asked local districts and departments to implement his committee’s directive on stepping up dengue prevention and control measures, especially in areas with high population density and many construction sites.

The Departments of Information and Communications, Education and Training and Construction will work with the Health department to boost communication activities, the city’s finance department was ordered to ensure funding for disease prevention and control.

It’s necessary to raise public awareness about dengue fever, as well as about prevention measures, which include quickly detecting infected or suspected cases in both health facilities and the community, and launching environmental sanitation campaigns by spraying mosquito repellents to kill mosquitoes.

Dengue fever is an infectious disease carried by mosquitoes and caused by any of the four related dengue viruses. This disease used to be called “break-bone fever” because it sometimes causes severe joint and muscle pain that feels like bones are breaking.

People get the dengue virus from the bite of an infected Aedes mosquito. It is not contagious from person to person.